Knights fancied vs Marlins

Fast emerging as a top title contender, the rampaging San Juan Knights are poised to stretch their winning run to six games and stay at the helm of the MBA-FedEx Crossover Cup preliminaries as they take on the slumping Socsargen Marlins at the Gen. Santos City Gym today.

Getting top caliber performances from their star-studded cast, the Andok's-supported Knights have seized solo leadership from Davao with a 6-1 win-loss mark, and they are fancied to keep their surge versus the Marlins in their 4 p.m. tiff.

The Cebu Gems are likewise favored to emerge victorious as they face the travel-weary Pampanga Dragons at 6:30 p.m. at the Bren Guiao Convention Center in San Fernando.

Pampanga is on a two-game slump, losing by 21 to Cagayan de Oro and by 14 to Iloilo, 96-110, late Sunday night in Guam.

The Dragons planed back home Monday in time for their match with the Cebuana Lhullier-backed Gems, who recently defeated Nueva Ecija by a wide margin.

As for San Juan, its recent 87-61 drubbing of the Marlins at home points to another easy victory tonight, with its overwhelming edge in manpower offsetting Socsargen's homecourt edge.

With the explosive games of Cris Calaguio and slam dunking Fil-Am Rafi Reavis, the Knights needed just a little over a quarter to pull away from the Marlins, already leading by a mile at the onset of the second half.

And as if San Juan's offensive firepower was not enough, it also boasts of a mean defense anchored on shot block artist Omanzie Rodriguez who established a league all-time record of nine blocks against Socsargen.

The Marlins (3-7) meantime remain heavily dependent of veteran ace Max Delantes, who coughed up only 12 points the last time around, as he too succumbed to San Juan's sticky defense.

Beefing up San Juan's frontline is 6-foot-9 Bonel Balingit, whose partnership with Rodriguez and Reavis further underscored Socsargen's weakness in the middle, with unfancied Chandler Donaldson the only legitimate Marlins' center.